The Devil’s Cage

The passengers that had gotten off the train were looking anxiously at the exit.

There was a dozen of vicious looking men blocking it. They had pictures in their hands and they were comparing the passengers one by one.

There were a couple of buff passengers who voiced out their dissatisfaction, but they were beaten hard and pushed down on the ground. Soon, there was blood all over them.

The policemen were ignoring the scene, so no one else dared speak out anymore.

The passengers were just looking at the men with fearful eyes.

Kieran frowned hard, not because the policemen were not doing their job, but because the pictures in the men’s hands looked familiar.

Even though there was quite a distance between them, Kieran’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the person on the pictures. It was him!

”It seems like Elli’s situation was much worse than I thought!” Kieran thought silently.

The situation before him explained everything.

Before he could even get back to West Coast, there were men guarding the train station, searching for him.

Obviously, the person behind this had been notified beforehand. Their information seemed to be quite detailed as well.

The pictures in the men’s hands said it all. Kieran was sure that even Elli’s background was known to the person behind this. They seemed to know who Elli had asked for help.

The person in charge had to have a lot more power than Kieran had imagined.

The thugs were able to search the passengers at the train station publicly while the police ignored the scene. This was no normal feat any John Doe could have achieved.

”Have their forces infiltrated the West Coast government departments?” Kieran guessed.

He unconsciously thought of Chief Officer Schmidt. Considering his straightforward personality, he must have been having a tough time lately.

”I hope everything is fine!” Kieran thought.

Meanwhile, he was heading towards the exit. He had no intention of avoiding the thugs.

There was just a dozen of them, so they were not intimidating enough for Kieran to try to avoid them.

Plus, Kieran had already been spotted, so there was no place for him to hide.

His gaze was silently scanning over the shadow on the ceiling near the platform.

A malicious intent was being radiated fiercely from that spot.

Kieran’s rushed steps were quicker than the other passengers’. He caught the thugs’ attention within an instant.

The vicious looking thugs were stunned at first. They took a closer look at the picture in their hands, and every single one of them smirked in delight.

”It’s him! Kill him!”

At the sound of the ecstatic shout, dozens of big buff thugs threw themselves at Kieran.

Daggers and tonfas appeared in their hands, ready to kill him.

The thugs’ leader even took out a gun.

The already scared passengers became even more terrified when they saw the armed men.

They scattered around with terrified screams, like birds being scared away by gunshots.

Instantly, a wide space was cleared between Kieran and the thugs.

Their leader raised his gun without hesitation, but before he could pull the trigger, his vision was compromised by darkness.

An air-breaking sound was heard, and the box holding the [Arrogant Word] was smashed hard against the thug’s head.

His bones cracked with a clear noise, and his head was smashed right off. The gun in his hand was distorted with a screech before it fell to the ground.

The other thugs were stunned by the sight of their leader being beaten until his head plunged into his chest.

Kieran’s enemies were all staring around blankly, but they could not see him.

Kieran was like a tiger charging into a herd of sheep, launching a barrage of kicks.

Layers of his kicking shadows overlapped, drowning all the thugs at once.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The clear noise of Kieran’s boots hitting the thugs spread all over the platform.

Just like their leader, the thugs flew away from Kieran’s kicks, as if they had been hit by a car. All their bones had been crushed.

As the thugs were flying away with agonizing cries, a dark shadow jumped on Kieran with a pitch-black, foul-smelling dagger, aiming for his neck.

Kieran moved slightly, dodging the stab easily. The dark shadow did not fall to the ground though.

Instead, it flapped its arms like a bird, extended its wings and flew up in the air.

That’s right, it flew away! Shocked, Kieran was looking at the figure in awe.

A black mantle covered its body and half of its face. Only its chin was exposed.

From the looks of its beard and the skin around it, the figure had to be a middle-aged man.

”So this is why you were the assistant of the strongest shaman on the West Coast! You are still nothing compared to Master Syken though…”

The flying man was speaking in an arrogant manner, in an attempt to put some distance between them.

Kieran did not miss his chance. He immediately raised his gun and took a shot.

Bang!

The bullet from the [Python-W2] struck the man directly in the head.

The collision made his head burst. His brains were splattered everywhere, and his body fell hard against the ground.

The dagger, which had been laced with poison, fell to the ground as well and bounced around a little before stopping completely.

Kieran did not even look at the body. He kicked the box that held the [Arrogant Sword] upwards.

The twisting box crashed against another figure above Kieran, making a slight noise.

Bang!

A middle-aged man named Syken fell hard before Kieran, blood gushing out of his mouth. His face seemed puzzled as he looked at Kieran.

Until his last breath, he didn’t understand how Kieran had discovered his realistic illusion.

Kieran would of course keep that secret to himself. The battlelog had not displayed a death notification for the flying figure when Kieran had shot him in the head. The slight noise from Syken’s movement had been as loud as thunder in Kieran’s ears.

Kieran extended his hand and grabbed the box falling from mid-air.

After picking up the Magical equipment next to the body, he headed towards the exit.

The passengers around them opened their eyes wide at the scene. They were all petrified.

Only after a full 20 seconds, when Kieran had already disappeared, did someone react to what had just happened.

”Aaah! Someone died!”

The passengers scattered around even quicker than before at the scream.

Some of the bolder ones picked up their phones and called the police.

When the operator answered the call though, even they could not say what had really happened.

When the policemen reached the scene, they saw the bodies around the station.

A police officer quickly dialed another number, as if he had seen such an incident before.

Schmidt arrived at the scene with a tired look.

He was working on some other mysterious cases, and he was exhausted. He wanted to slap the hell out of his colleagues, grab them by the collars and yell at them.

’Not all f*cking murders are related to the mystical cases!’

However, his job forced him to put everything into question.

Especially when one of the bodies was Syken’s, a man who had gained some notoriety over the past year on the West Coast. Schmidt became even more serious.

He could not ignore someone who had the ability to take out Syken.

”Can you elaborate on what happened?” Schmidt asked some of the passengers that were present.

However, everything had happened too fast, so no one had really been able to see much.

Even the witness who described everything in the most detail had a blurry memory of the incident. Schmidt frowned.

”They were looking for the person in the picture, they found him, and then suddenly everyone was killed!”

When Schmidt heard that, he asked the officer beside him to bring him the picture the thugs had been holding.

”The person who was assaulted, what did he look like? What was he wearing, and what did he have with him?” Schmid asked the passengers patiently.

”What did he look like? I couldn’t see properly, but he had a big backpack with him and he was holding a huge box in his hand with something heavy inside. He was wearing a black feather mantle that seemed to be made from raven feathers, the ominous kind!”

”Yes, a really bad omen!”

The passengers finally said something useful, thanks to Schmidt’s guidance.

Schmidt was not concerned about the bad omen that the passengers had mentioned. He just painted a rough image of the person based on their description.

Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared in his mind.

”Give me the picture! Fast!” Schmidt shouted at his colleague. He was eager to confirm whether his idea was right or not.

When the officer brought the evidence bag that held the picture, Schmidt saw the person on it clearly.

His tired face instantly seemed refreshed.

”He’s back! Finally!” he mumbled.

Schmidt suddenly thought of something and rushed outside the station. He ignored his colleague’s shouts completely.

Meanwhile, the secret forces that had been faintly paying attention to the proceedings at the train station had received the news through their own secret channels.

Everyone had heard the same news. The assistant of the strongest shaman on the West Coast had finally returned!

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Dedicate this chapter to LordDaoThief, who is always giving cookies around the comment sections!

Give him a round of applause!